Realty firm Raheja Developers said it would invest about four thousan five hundred crore rupees to develop an engineering SEZ in Gurgaon over the next three to five years.
This project, which is expected to create job opportunities for around fifty thousand people (including both direct and indirect) is said to have a potential to generate yearly exports of one thousand crore rupees.
According to Navin M Raheja Raheja Developers Chairman “This is the first notified engineering Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in the northern India. The project cost to develop this two hundred fifty five acre SEZ is about four thousand five hundred crore rupees,”.
The investment would be funded through a mix of debt, equity and internal accruals, he said. “We are also looking at the strategic investors,” Mr Raheja added.
Informing on the land acquisition process Raheja informed that out of the total two hundred fifty five acre, about sixty per cent has been purchased while in the rest of the forty per cent the company has entered into partnership with landowners.
“We are going with the willing partnership of the farmers by paying them competitive prices for their lands. Incase the farmers are still reluctant to sell their lands, we have an option where the landowner can give his land on lease and in return can expect an income of around Rs 2-5 lakh per month, which is much higher with respect to what a farmer would normally earn on an equal stretch of land,” Raheja said.
When asked to comment on the amount of pressure, the growing number of SEZs will put on the limited agricultural land, Mr Raheja asserted that it is not SEZs, but low productivity of agricultural produce, that is an obstacle in the country’s pursuit of producing sufficient food grains.
Raheja, explaining on their SEZ project, said, the first phase of the project that involves the notified two hundred fifty five acre would be completed over the next 3-5 years. The company plans to expand the size of SEZ project and is in talks with landowners.